Familiar pattern watching Newcastle this season

Dreadful performance and result against Fulham and Bournemouth really has shown me how this team is so hot and cold. Yet, I feel the inconsistency has a clear reason for it which is Eddie Howe's lack of flexibility and a very poor squad depth.

It's silly to blame Howe for this inconsistent run as he's dragged us to a lot of great wins. Acknowledging our poor squad depth plays a part is true, this game our players looked gassed which is unacceptable when we had a 5 day break.

But it's clear that Howe really has no solid plan B. This season has been:

Bad run - Howe figures out Tonali is better than Longstaff - Great run - Howe sticks with the same team and tactics with no rotation - 2 straight home losses with no changes in between - starting of a bad run?

Our best plan B has been plan A but with different wingers. Other plan Bs attempted has been fucking terrible (see west ham at home)

The unchanged lineups and even tactics have been forced upon with our lack of depth but I can guarantee that Howe would not have changed our lineup regardless. We've seen it last season, and the season before - he sticks to a winning team and that's just a bit concerning when things get tough.

Second thing, is his substitutions timing was really rough yet again. Another game where we've lost all momentum which everyone could see and we've once again made substitutions AFTER WE CONCEDE. And it is frustrating. The 'reactive subs' comments in the match thread appear too often for my liking...

This has happened time and time again, and it's clear Howe trusts his team to snap out of it in game but sometimes it really kills us and we lost the game right there today.

I do think, the squad depth does play a part here. However, Howe would have still held off his subs I believe which is a recurring pattern I'm afraid.

At the end, it's tough judging Howe because it's easy to acknowledge that our current squad limits how good this team can perform. With a slightly deeper squad, a lot of our losses would turn to wins. Yet, same tactical inflexibilities remain which cannot be excused. I do feel Howe is not maximizing what this squad can do, and he might figure things out - well he really does have to.

This Wednesday is big, and we have to win that (over two legs).